Sci"en*tist (?), n. One learned in science; a scientific investigator; one devoted to scientific study; a savant. [Recent]

☞ Twenty years ago I ventured to propose one [a name for the class of men who give their lives to scientific study] which has been slowly finding its way to general adoption; and the word scientist, though scarcely euphonious, has gradually assumed its place in our vocabulary. B. A. Gould (Address, 1869).

-- Webster's unabridged 1913